The Sarasota Emergency Radio Club (SERC) was incorporated in 1977, with a charter to provide communications support to the community during times of emergency or special events. SERC members are FCC-licensed, amateur radio operators or individuals interested in becoming amateur radio operators. Membership is open to all in the greater Sarasota area.

Our community partners include the local American Red Cross (ARC) who host many of SERC’s events and activities at their Sarasota campus where our radio room is located. Other agencies SERC is partnered with include Sarasota County Emergency Management (EOC) and the Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH), where SRQ ARES (Sarasota Amateur Radio Emergency Service) radio operators trained in Incident Command System (ICS) protocols volunteer during storms and other emergencies to provide emergency communications back-up when needed at all SMH locations.

It is an important asset for a community to have a well-trained group of citizens who can respond quickly when there is an urgent need for electronics and communications skills to cope with an unexpected situation. The nature of the volunteer assistance rendered to the above agencies consists of providing trained personnel that can set-up and operate radio systems to provide voice, data and video communications throughout Sarasota County.

SERC owns and maintains several digital repeaters throughout the county. These communications systems use the FCC amateur radio frequencies in the High Frequency, Very High and Ultra High Frequency bands. As such, reliable communications paths, ranging from less than a mile to several hundred or even thousands of miles, can be established.

SERC is affiliated with The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) as a special service club, which means that the club provides a wide range of services to its members and the community. These range from training and licensing course support to helping at charitable events, to taking an active role during times of emergency.

Many SERC members are also involved in the afore-mentioned Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) activities. The latter is the FCC-governed operations when assisting all forms governmental agencies.

Two tribute pages:

Now defunct, the Sarasota Digital Group (SDG), was responsible for significant improvements in the SERC infrastructure. Here is a link to the final SDG web page ( Link ). Thank you to all who were involved.

The Sarasota Amateur Radio Association (SARA) merged with SERC in 2021. For many years SARA was based in the Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Their equipment, now owned by SERC, still exists there. Here is a link to a page that was set up to honor SARA members. ( Link )